iTunes Session

Drawing from Crazy For You and earlier singles and tossing in a cover, Bethany Cosentino takes a well-earned victory lap.

Last Tuesday, as Best Coast's iTunes Session hit the web, Bethany Cosentino strung together two tweets: "since every1 is asking," she began, "yes, best coast will record another record this year... got a lot of songs already written and a lot more to write. life has been pretty nuts therefore i have a lot to write about!" Much like the iTunes session Vampire Weekend shared just before the Christmas holiday, this Best Coast record feels like something of a victory lap at the end of a flagship year. Since the release of her L.A. outfit's debut splash, Crazy For You, Cosentino's profile has ballooned. For an artist on a small independent label, she sold a boatload of records. She joined tourmates Weezer on-stage. Alongside VW's Rostam Batmanglij and Kid Cudi, she lent her face and voice to a cross-pollinating Converse campaign. Her relationship with Wavves' Nathan Williams provided onlookers and press alike the opportunity to coronate them as a new, less terrifying Kurt and Courtney. She met and touched Justin Bieber. And with the addition of near constant touring, it's not hard to understand what she means by "life has been pretty nuts."

Best Coast began as one in a long list of lo-fi, beach-oriented pop projects. Easy to file. But as heard here, Cosentino's voice has grown quite a bit since. When listened to side-by-side with a handful of her early, far grimier singles, Crazy For You is a comparatively bright and shiny affair. Recorded in East West Studios, the very same room that helped birth Pet Sounds, these sessions promise another upgrade in fidelity. Hearing a song like "Something in the Way"-- a crud-covered 7" cut-- really belted makes for a completely different listening experience. Sure, there's some distortion kicked up in the chord changes, but as she details in a half-hour interview included with the iTunes purchase, the stripping away of effects is still an ongoing process. She's becoming confident in her singing.

So "Crazy For You" sounds totally refreshing here, the chorus hook of "Boyfriend" sharper than it's ever been before and "Goodbye" receives a deserved upgrade as well. With the exception of "Our Deal", a Crazy For You sleeper that's been extended in service of some waterlogged atmospherics, these slightly tweaked new versions are often superior to the originals. "When I'm With You", arguably her sweetest slice of pop to date, is near flawless. But placing Cosentino's vocals in the limelight also comes with its share of drawbacks, namely the attention it brings to holes in her songwriting. Whatever you think of her weed- and boy-crazy sensibilities-- and plenty admire their simplicity and directness-- it's clear after listening to her give everything she's got to a cover of Loretta Lynn's "Fist City" that she's a far stronger singer at this point than she is a lyricist. If her songwriting has come along as much as her voice has in the past year, that won't be the case much longer.